- Roman theater, like other Roman arts, was based on Greek precedents. This included not only the dominant dramatic forms -- tragedy and comedy -- but also the basic design of the theaters themselves. Roman playwrights, including Seneca and Plautus, often adapted Greek tragedies to a Roman context. For example, Seneca's tragedy "Phaedra" is based on an earlier play by Euripides, a Greek playwright. Performances were characterized by the use of masks, costumes and even rudimentary stage effects including rotating stages and trap doors.
- Although the Romans used Greek techniques for producing sculpture, they did so with a different intent. While Greek sculpture tended to take various myths as its subject, Roman sculpture tended to perform a more political function. Many examples of different subjects in Roman sculpture exist, but sculptures of powerful people are most numerous. For example, thousands of sculptures of Augustus and Julius Caesar exist to this day. The Romans' favored material was marble, but they also often used bronze and other stone.
- Like the Greeks, the Romans used and developed a number of poetic forms, most notably epic poetry. Virgil's "Aeneid," which describes the mythological founding of Rome, was based on the Greek poet Homer's "Iliad" and actually begins where Homer's epic ends. Roman epic poetry was distinguished from another verse form called narrative poetry, in which poets turned stories from Greek or Roman myth into verse. For example, Ovid's "Metamorphoses" takes several Greek myths and reformulates them for a Roman audience.
- Architecture was an area in which the Roman's were highly innovative, developing the art far beyond Greek achievements. The many Roman buildings that remain standing today are a testament to the skill of Roman architects and builders. Examples include the Pantheon and the Colosseum in Rome, Italy. Like the Greeks, the Romans used stone and wood as their main building materials. However, they also invented concrete and adopted building techniques from surrounding cultures, such as the Egyptians, to create buildings that surpassed all precedents in size and complexity.
- Because the pigments they used tend to decay rapidly, there are fewer examples of Roman painting than of other art forms. However, because the Roman town of Pompeii was preserved under volcanic ash until its excavation in the 19th and 20th centuries, it still contains many examples of Roman fresco painting -- paintings applied directly to plaster as it dries. Like the other arts, these painting techniques were derived from the Greeks. Subjects included scenes from Roman and Greek mythology, nature scenes and scenes from daily Roman life.